Law firm takes additional floor at 191 N. Wacker

Eddie Baeb

(Crain's) -- Law firm Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP has signed a long-term lease that expands its Chicago office, taking an additional floor at 191 N. Wacker Drive.
Drinker, which early last year acquired Chicago firm Gardner Carton & Douglas LLP, now has the top nine levels in the 37-floor tower, occupying 180,190 square feet.
The expansion at 191 N. Wacker gives Drinker an additional 25,000 square feet in the building, which Gardner anchored when it was built in 2002. Drinker's lease now runs through December 2021, according to real estate research firm CoStar Group Inc.
Drinker needed the additional space because of growth throughout the firm, including Drinker's human resources practice as well as its litigation and health care groups, says Andrew Kassner, the executive partner of Philadelphia-based Drinker.
"Fortunately for us, we're very happy with not only how we are doing nationally in our firm but also with the performance of our Chicago office," says Mr. Kassner, who is based in Philadelphia. "We've said from the beginning that we anticipate growing in our Chicago office. . . .We were simply running out of space."
Drinker was represented in the expansion by Tiffany Winne,

Drinker, which early last year acquired Chicago firm Gardner Carton & Douglas LLP, now has the top nine levels in the 37-floor tower, occupying 180,190 square feet.

The expansion at 191 N. Wacker gives Drinker an additional 25,000 square feet in the building, which Gardner anchored when it was built in 2002. Drinker's lease now runs through December 2021, according to real estate research firm CoStar Group Inc.

Drinker needed the additional space because of growth throughout the firm, including Drinker's human resources practice as well as its litigation and health care groups, says Andrew Kassner, the executive partner of Philadelphia-based Drinker.

"Fortunately for us, we're very happy with not only how we are doing nationally in our firm but also with the performance of our Chicago office," says Mr. Kassner, who is based in Philadelphia. "We've said from the beginning that we anticipate growing in our Chicago office. . . .We were simply running out of space."

Drinker was represented in the expansion by Tiffany Winne, a corporate managing director with the Chicago office of Studley Inc. Ms. Winne declines to comment.

Drinker has also continued to grow here by picking up lawyers from other firms. Last October, the firm lured three litigators away from Mayer Brown LLP, and in November announced it was acquiring the 13-lawyer employment litigation firm Connelly Sheehan Harris LLP.

Drinker, which acquired Gardner after opening an office here in spring 2006, now has 162 lawyers in its Chicago office. Gardner had more than 200 attorneys in 2005, but that had dropped to below 150 amid turmoil at the firm before Drinker announced its acquisition in late 2006.

"We've been expanding all along" since the acquisition, says Edwin Getz, Drinker's regional partner in charge of the Chicago office. "This allows us to have a little more comfortable space than we had, and room to be able to grow -- which we have designs to do."